Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Henry Bibb, an American Slave, Written by Himself eBook

I presume there are no class of people in the United
States who so highly appreciate the legality of marriage
as those persons who have been held and treated as
property. Yes, it is that fugitive who knows
from sad experience, what it is to have his wife tyrannically
snatched from his bosom by a slaveholding professor
of religion, and finally reduced to a state of adultery,
that knows how to appreciate the law that repels such
high-handed villany. Such as that to which the
writer has been exposed. But thanks be to God,
I am now free from the hand of the cruel oppressor,
no more to be plundered of my dearest rights; the
wife of my bosom, and my poor unoffending offspring.
Of Malinda I will only add a word in conclusion.
The relation once subsisting between us, to which
I clung, hoping against hope, for years, after we
were torn assunder, not having been sanctioned by any
loyal power, cannot be cancelled by a legal process.
Voluntarily assumed without law mutually, it was by
her relinquished years ago without my knowledge, as
before named; during which time I was making every
effort to secure her restoration. And it was not
until after living alone in the world for more than
eight years without a companion known in law or morals,
that I changed my condition.

CHAPTER XIX.

But it seems that I am not now beyond the reach of
the foul slander of slaveholders. They are not
satisfied with selling and banishing me from my native
State. As soon as they got news of my being in
the free North, exposing their peculiar Institution,
a libelous letter was written by Silas Gatewood of
Kentucky, a son of one of my former owners, to a Northern
Committee, for publication, which he thought would
destroy my influence and character. This letter
will be found in the introduction.

He has charged me with the awful crime of taking from
my keeper and oppressor, some of the fruits of my
own labor for the benefit of myself and family.

But while writing this letter he seems to have overlooked
the disgraceful fact that he was guilty himself of
what would here be regarded highway robbery, in his
conduct to me as narrated on page 60 of this narrative.

A word in reply to Silas Gatewood’s letter.
I am willing to admit all that is true, but shall
deny that which is so basely false. In the first
place, he puts words in my mouth that I never used.
He says that I represented that “my mother belonged
to James Bibb.” I deny ever having said
so in private or public. He says that I stated
that Bibb’s daughter married a Sibley.
I deny it. He also says that the first time that
I left Kentucky for my liberty, I was gone about two
years, before I went back to rescue my family.
I deny it. I was gone from Dec. 25th, 1837, to
May, or June, 1838. He says that I went back the
second time for the purpose of taking off my family,
and eight or ten more slaves to Canada. This
I will not pretend to deny. He says I was guilty
of disposing of articles from the farm for my own use,
and pocketing the money, and that his father caught
me stealing a sack full of wheat. I admit the
fact. I acknowledge the wheat.